The new DVD is ready to go. We will have the files available for download within the next few days, but for now we’re only taking orders for the physical DVD. You can find all the details on the Experimental Methods 3 page in the One-on-One section of the DVD Shop.

I have added Experimental Methods 2 and Knife Principles & Drills to our downloadable collection. Please see my previous post (3rd March) for details on how to order. More to come.

Hi everyone, Tricia here. I’ve been making selected DVD titles available as downloads for some weeks now. This is still a trial run, so you can’t get instant access, but it’s much faster than waiting for the post.

Here’s how to do it. Look at the list of what we have, then order the DVD that you want as usual. Put a note on your paypal order or send us an e-mail or Facebook message to let us know you want the download. I will send you a link to the MP4 files asap for you to view online and/or download. I will also refund you £2.50 because we save on postage.

If you want something that isn’t on the list, it’s worth contacting me to ask if I can do it. The shorter the DVD, the more likely I can help you out. I aim to have everything up eventually, but if people ask me it gives me a nudge in the right direction.

Right now we have:

Introduction to Training

Experimental Methods 1

Isometrics Theory

Isometrics Tips for Fighters

FAQ

Going to the Ground and sister DVDs

Startle!

We haven’t had a DVD sale in quite a while, so will be discounting select DVDs from now until the end of January. Here are the titles on sale:

Sparring Fundamentals, Knife Principles & Drills, Advanced Knife:  each marked down from £32.50 to £22.00

Going to the Ground, Going to the Ground alt: each marked down from £47.50 to £30.00

Primal: marked down from £37.50 to £25.00

NHB 1 and NHB 1a: each marked down from £27.50 to £18.00

Sale ends 30 January.

We just shot a One-on-One DVD about the startle reflex. This is material that I have been developing and refining for well over 40 years and I discuss the key points that you need to understand to use the startle in your own training. You can find it in the One-on-One series page of the DVD shop.

I’ve been teaching about the entry-breakdown-takedown-finish for a great many years. However, I’ve released very little of it on video. For a number of years in my sessions at both Gloucester and Enfield we’ve been experimenting and trying to marry the standup with the ground, which share certain commonalities that may not be immediately obvious. Once you understand them you will have a deeper understanding of the whole fight.

Going to the Ground is the first in a new series that will highlight the rationale underlying the entry-breakdown-takedown-finish and its applications depending on the individual and the situational context. It was recorded with my Enfield group in live, unscripted teaching sessions.

This is a huge topic. In deciding how to begin covering it, I was faced with an interconnected web of concepts and technical applications. As with everything I do, this material holistically connects to the principles of standup and movement in general. That makes it difficult to capture in a single session. For this reason, I’m offering more than one view of the material, from more than one angle. I’m not teaching moves, I’m trying to get across certain concepts that are fundamental to all aspects of fighting. You will see the extension of my work on striking in this material, but in a new way. Everything links together coherently.

These are DVDs that will reward repeated viewing and careful study. They are heavily loaded with information and examples.

For more information or to order, see the DVD Shop.

A video from the 1973 karate tournament between the UK and USA has been doing the rounds on Facebook. I don’t keep up with what’s going on in karate, but I came across it and remembered that Tom Kelly had been part of that team. I went to look him up and found that he’d passed away in 2012.

In 1973 I was at Earlham Street and had gone off in my own direction, full-contact fighting. But I still had contacts within karate, and was highly regarded by the chairman of the BKA, Len Palmer. David Dubow also had a friend from LA called Meyer, who was associated with Ed Parker. David was always looking for a way to get me into the American mainstream. He tried it through Aaron Banks and I said, ‘No,’ and he was even trying to get me involved with Ed Parker through Meyer, and I also said no.

Shortly after the competition documented in this movie, Len Palmer rang me up to check out what kind of mood I was in. He knew I wasn’t interested in the karate establishment. I’m not sure what was going on, all I know is that  he and David Dubow turned up at the club with Ed Parker and some of the team. David  had been entertaining Ed while he was in London.

I showed them round the gym, it was the usual martial arts banter, talking about equipment, training methods, and so on. I remember telling Ed about how I used to use a film editor to watch old boxing movies and run them forward and backward to pick up the details of the exchange. By going backwards, the idea struck me that every move had another ‘side’ to it that contributed to the overall effect, and I began to explore what that other side might be, the hidden side of movement. Anyway, Ed was interested and it was a friendly meeting.

Tom Kelly was among those guys, and David said to me, show Tom around London while he’s here. Which I did. I took him around Chinatown because I had friends there. We went and had a meal in Chinatown, where I introduced him to my Chinese friends and those kung fu guys I knew at the time. In the Soho area there were a lot of little bookstores I frequented, both Chinese and Western, and what you have to remember is that in those days it was hard to find information. It wasn’t like it is now with the internet, so you had to know where to look. I took him around my favourite shops, and he seized on Musashi’s Book of Five Rings, which I bought for him. We went to the late night Chinese cinema and watched movies for most of the night.

Tom and I got on well. At that time I was going around fifteen and a half stone—nearly 220 pounds—and standing next to him I felt small. He was a really nice guy. He was one of those guys you would like to be a friend. Of course, we were on completely different trajectories in the martial arts.

When you get to be my age, it’s not supposed to be a shock to find out that someone you knew when you were young has died. But it’s still a shock, and because I’m no longer part of that martial art community I often don’t hear about it until years later. It’s like when Gary Spiers died, I found out well after the fact.

I’m somebody who focuses on going forward and not looking back. I’ve never been one to go to reunions or meet up at the pub to talk about old times, because my eye is on the future. At the same time, those were some happy memories.